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“I was cured, all right!”
I Saw the Devil (2010)
(Kim Jee-woon)


Almost perfect! Not a big fan of some scenes with fast cuts, but isn't too much like american films this days. So I'm ok with that. Lots of blood and gore, sometimes it looks and fell like a horror film! Choi Min-sik and Lee Byung-hun are one of the bests actors working today!

A History of Violence (2005)
(David Cronenberg)


Great collaboration between Viggo and David, both of them have worked three times and this and A Dangerous Method are the best (no love for Eastern Promises here). Loved how Cronenberg used the good old "shoots effect" in all the guns in this film, it was so nostalgic to hear this guns effects again. Loved the action, the violence but I had some major issues in the ending.

Cosmopolis (2012)
(David Cronenberg)


I rewatched 4 times in two weeks! One of the best films that I saw this year, I loved every second. I remember when this first come out: "Arght, the Twilight guy? Sorry, I pass" How stupid I was, I loved Robert Pattinson in this film. Amazing how every view was fresh to me. I can't say that I'm alone in this because this world is too big right? But so far, this is my favorite Cronenberg flick. Didn't watched all of them yet but I'll defennelly check all of them. It gets better at every view! I rated 4/5 two weeks ago but now, after three more views it's a 4,5/5 for me!


The Thing (1982)
(John Carpenter)


One of the best horror movies imo!
Awesome practical effects, Kurt Russell badass, Ennio Morricone and THAT ending!! I love this film!

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
(Denis Villeneuve)


Best american Blockbuster in 3 years, the last good one was Interstellar. Already talked about the flaws and why I loved, but I watched two more times in theaters after that day. The film really holds up! Finally some well spend money in Hollywood blockbuster.

A Taxi Driver (2017)
(Hun Jang)


Song Kang-ho! You're the man! Great acting, great editing! This was one of the most anticipated of the year for me. The film starts with lots of humor and then it turns into a drama, a good drama by the way. It was so natural. I was lmao in the first half and in the second half I was almost crying.

Confessions (2010)
(Tetsuya Nakashima)


Original, well acted, different, weird! A true art film!

Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron (1978)
(Hideo Gosha)


I'm back to Hideo Gosha movies, and this one...OMG!
Tatsuya Nakadai is just awesome in this and of course there's lots of blood. This time there's Blood Spray (Like the ones in The Lone Wolf and Cub), lots of boobs and a twist! The climax is good and well done! Hats off! One of Gosha's best so far!

After Hours (1985)
(Martin Scorsese)


I hate comedy, I do not see humor and I find it boring. But Martin Scorsese being the great director he is, manages to make a comedy movie that really makes me laugh. I do not remember another genuinely comedy movie that really made me laugh like this.

AND MY FILM NUMER "300" OF 2017 IS:

A Bronx Tale (1993)
(Robert De Niro)


This movie touched me. I grew up in a dangerous neighborhood, just like the Bronx. Where there were gangsters around, I know how attractive the underworld of crime is, a world without rules, without scruples. Seeing this movie, I recalled several moments of my childhood and how difficult it is for parents to explain certain everyday issues that should not be presented to a child. I do not see this movie as a typical gangster movie, but rather like a movie about growing up in a dangerous neighborhood! A simple story but incredibly well told!

Other movies I saw in the first half of this month:
Mother (2009) [Bong Joo-ho]

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
[Roger Corman]

Inside (2007) [Alexandre Bus./Julien Maury]

Leatherface (2017) [Alexandre Bus./Julien Maury ¬¬]
Fuuuuuck this shiiitt!!!
Friday the 13th:The Final Chapter (1984) [Joseph Zito]

Tunnel (2016) [Kim Seong-hun]

Akira (1988) [Katsuhiro Ôtomo]

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) [Chad Stahelski]

Oldboy (2003) [Park Chan-Wook]

Baby Driver (2017) [Edgar Wright]

Re-Animator (1985)[Stuart Gordon]

Cult of Chucky (2017) [Don Mancini]



Rewatches in red
I'm currently watching the Halloween franchise, but I'll put them all together when I finish all because... Why not?



Welcome to the human race...
Body Bags (John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, 1993) -


So this is a made-for-TV anthology movie where Carpenter himself plays a Cryptkeeper-like host who introduces three separate tales of ultimately middling quality. "The Gas Station" (directed by Carpenter) is a passable killer-on-the-loose kind of story that sees Carpenter retread similar ground to Halloween. "Hair" (Carpenter again) is a transplant-gone-wrong story that goes for blackly comic body horror but its excessive length and inconsistent tone easily make it the weakest chapter of the movie despite its strange turns. It's thrown into even sharper relief by "Eye" (Hooper), another transplant -gone-wrong story that's decent enough to make me both question why "Hair" was included and also why they weren't all transplant-gone-wrong stories. Body Bags isn't terrible, but I think the fact that the most enjoyable parts are Carpenter's host segments instead of the actual stories says everything you really need to know about this movie.

The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) -


A brief and watchable Fassbinder tale about an alcoholic fruit vendor and the various misadventures that he and his long-suffering family get into. Not bad or anything, but it's still just alright and I don't feel overly impressed by it.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) -


Meanwhile, this is my favourite Fassbinder so far. Certainly seems like a deliberate attempt to reconfigure conventional melodrama for the envelope-pushing New German Cinema (I did get a major All That Heaven Allows vibe from this for obvious reasons) and it certainly proves an emotional rollercoaster while keeping its flourishes minimalist.

Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980) -


Third time watching a Pialat film and so far this one's been the most tolerable, though I'm still hard-pressed to find much to appreciate about it.

The Crazies (George A. Romero, 1973) -


While you could make the case that the much-vaunted social commentary of Night of the Living Dead was fortunate happenstance, you certainly can't ignore how much The Crazies feels like Romero deliberately attempting to capture the zeitgeist of early-'70s America. The tale of a bio-weapon turning a small town's populace into violent maniacs and the military intervening in the situation draws all sorts of comparisons to stuff like the Vietnam War and the emerging counterculture, doing a remarkable job of subverting expectations from stark cold-open to shockingly sudden ending. It's enough to compensate for how lacking in traditional scares the rest of the film ends up being; if anything, the fact that this doesn't end up being your typical tale of homicidal maniacs is most definitely a point in its favour.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (David Rosen and Rob Letterman, 2017) -


I'm not sure how much of the rating can be credited to pure nostalgia, but I do think that DreamWorks have managed to create a remarkable adaptation of Dav Pilkey's charmingly irreverent books. Turning the pen-and-ink world of the books into computer animation is a challenge that DreamWorks are able to take on in order to provide what may be their most visually distinctive piece of work yet. It also maintains the hyperactive sense of humour and storytelling without giving way to incoherence or insincerity - this is very much a movie that's learned all the best family-film lessons and is all the better for it.

WolfCop (Lowell Dean, 2014) -


WolfCop is very much an entry into the Grindhouse genre (not to be confused with the grindhouse genre) that offers yet another 21st-century approximation of 20th-century trash aesthetics and nothing much beyond that. There are some appreciably low-grade practical effects and a twisty plot that helps to make these 70-ish minutes pass by a little quicker, but it's still a shoddy piece of work when all is said and done.

Tales From the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 1972) -


Hey wait, I thought there was supposed to be a weird little puppet guy in this movie...

But seriously, this is fairly solid as far as horror anthologies go. Though I still feel like I like the idea of horror anthologies more than their various actualities, this one seems to have things worked out fairly well. It's got a decent framing story (five people get stuck in a crypt with a cryptkeeper who warns them of the fates that will befall them once they leave the crypt). The segments never feel too long or boring despite their repeititve narratives and structuring (which is always a major concern with anthologies) and the Hammer-esque feel of the film is distinctive without managing to obscure the horror through quaintness or camp.

Level Five (Chris Marker, 1995) -


I'm still uncertain whether this is an authentic documentary or just a very well-researched mockumentary, but either way its central premise - legendary documentarian Marker piecing together footage made by a woman named Laura about her progress in creating a videogame based on Japanese military history - is a solid one that is more than borne out by the rest of the film. Archived interviews, tourist footage, and direct-to-camera soliloquys abound in this charmingly mid-'90s tale of computer magic that is bound to stay with me.

Vampyr (Carl Theodore Dreyer, 1932) -


Definitely one of those classic films where it's easier to respect it as a historical artifact but not necessarily too enjoyable as a cinematic experience. Still, I haven't seen any Dreyer films before and I was definitely impressed by the techniques on display even as they were in service to a story that felt a little too dull and plodding for a 70-minute movie (it's not like the many walls of text that are in this movie are particularly cinematic in one way or another). It has a couple of standout moments (the buried alive scene being an obvious example), but it's not quite operating on the same level as stuff like Nosferatu or Dracula. Like I said, respectable but not exactly loveable.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders, 2017)

The Ultimate Warrior (Robert Clouse, 1975)

Screamers (Christian Duguay, 1996)

The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987)


The Feng Brothers (Jamison Newlander & Corey Feldman) warn acquaintance Corey Haim that his family has moved to California’s vampire capital.
The Babysitter (McG, 2017)

House of the Witch (Alex Merkin, 2017)
+
Seven Sweethearts (Frank Borzage, 1942)

What's Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich, 1972)
+

Henpecked musicologist Ryan O’Neal meets live Looney Tunes character Barbra Streisand.
The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)

Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (A.B. Stone, 2015)

Wherever You Go There We Are (Jesse McLean, 2017)

Homeland (Iraq Year Zero) (Abbas Fahdel, 2016)
334 min

Personal, epic and powerful documentary about Iraq and one particular family before and after the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Land of the Lost (Brad Silberling, 2009)

Maudie (Aisling Walsh, 2017)
+
The Affairs of Martha (Jules Dassin, 1942)

Lady Macbeth (William Oldroyd, 2017)


19th-century English wife Florence Pugh, who was sold into a marriage that reinforces the lack of her rights and desires, becomes sexually attracted to a worker (Cosmo Jarvis) on her husband’s and his father’s rural estate.
Band Aid (Zoe Lister-Jones, 2017)

Opening Night (Isaac Rentz, 2017)

Forever My Love (Ernst Marischka, 1962)
English dubbed condensation of the “Sissi” trilogy
The Exception (David Leveaux, 2017)
+

During WWII, former Kaiser Wilhelm (Christopher Plummer) shows his displeasure with the Nazis by helping a Dutch Resistance operation.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



The Meyerowitz Stories



Only been a couple of days but I already think I am half a star too low on this. Great great writing as usual from Baumbach. He just writes what he knows and does it better than most. Funny, upsetting, and endearing while being full of great characters. Really wish Sandler would give up the Happy Madison stuff and do the lovable flawed sad sack for great directors. He needs to be in a Wes Anderson movie. Even his songs work in this. What can you say about Dustin Hoffman? I would love to see him get a Oscar nomination for this. He is pitch perfect. Probably my second favorite Baumbach. I don't know Frances Ha and Mistress America are pretty great. Squid And The Whale still rules them all.

The Exorcist



New favorite alert and who woulda thunk it. Camo asked me what I liked so much about it and my answer basically boiled down to, "it's just great cinema". It does everything right. Looks absolutely amazing and does what most every horror flick fails to for me, cares about the characters above all and they are all great. This is a movie that is full of amazing scenes and characters throughout and then Max Von Sydow shows back up and dwarves them at just the right moment and in just the right way. Fantastic.

Crumb



I have been meaning to watch this literally since it showed up at my blockbuster in '94. This is how you do docs. Just let the characters speak for themselves. Introduce the characters in a way where you know the audience will be on their side and then roll out the stuff that will disturb us the most. That may seem manipulative to some and maybe it is to a point but it also humanizes the subjects properly in my opinion. Disturbing, funny, and a whole lot of melancholy.

Our Souls At Night



Watched this with my mom tonight. Not half bad...not half good either.
__________________
Letterboxd



Welcome to the human race...
To Our Loves (Maurice Pialat, 1983) -


Four films in and I'm really starting to understand why MUBI's Pialat retrospective is titled "I Don't Like You Either" after the filmmaker's infamous quote - maybe I'm just not supposed to like these films and that's why they work. That being said, this tale of romantic angst and growing pains plays like a bit of a rehash of [i]Loulou[i] and more than anything else makes me think that I should give Agnès Varda's Vagabond a second chance.

The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp (Jean-Marie Straub, 1968) -


A short that I watched because of the Fassbinder connection that is appreciably minimalist but not particularly special.

The City Tramp (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1966) -


Fassbinder's first short about a tramp who wanders around the city and even finds a gun. It's short and has a point, but only really functions as a minor curiosity.

The Little Chaos (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1967) -


Another short, this time playing out like an abridged version of a French New Wave two-guys-and-a-girl caper where they all do crimes. Again, nothing more than a curiosity.

Love is Colder Than Death (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969) -


Fassbinder's first feature is one that, like the previous film, plays like his off-kilter take on the cool crime capers of Godard and Truffaut. Certainly showing signs of improvement, but still extremely rough around the edges.

You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2011) -


The memory of recent Wingard misfires like Blair Witch and Death Note haunted me throughout the rather shiftless first act of You're Next but those thoughts were definitely dissipated once the action itself got underway. It certainly helps that it offers a few decent twists along the way (not just in terms of narrative but also on expectations of what the characters will be like) and it has that kind of tightly-constructed mise-en-scene that makes these kinds of siege movies all the more fun to watch.

Black Water (Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich, 2007) -


This is a local feature about a trio of tourists whose spur-of-the-moment fishing trip in the northern Queensland mangroves turns deadly when they run afoul of a saltwater crocodile. It's an appreciably lean movie, though it suffers a bit for having to juggle only three characters (and one croc) for a feature-length movie. It's got at least one good scare in there and the swampy setting looks good, but it's still very whatever. I wonder how much of that is because I'm just not fussed about killer animal movies in the first place.

Julieta (Pedro Almodòvar, 2016) -


I'll say this about Almodòvar - he's a very dependable filmmaker and his latest outing about a woman dealing with the ramifications of her younger self's actions is certainly about what I'd expect from him. It may be the weakest film of his that I've seen so far, but that certainly doesn't make it bad.

Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969) -


Another early Fassbinder piece, this time about the inhabitants of a German apartment block and their mostly dysfunctional relationships with one another. Rough, but watchable.

Gods of the Plague (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970) -


I feel like you can't watch too many of these early Fassbinder movies at once lest they blend together a little too much. That or maybe this one about an ex-con getting back to his old ways isn't all that interesting in the first place.




The Exorcist



New favorite alert and who woulda thunk it. Camo asked me what I liked so much about it and my answer basically boiled down to, "it's just great cinema". It does everything right. Looks absolutely amazing and does what most every horror flick fails to for me, cares about the characters above all and they are all great. This is a movie that is full of amazing scenes and characters throughout and then Max Von Sydow shows back up and dwarves them at just the right moment and in just the right way. Fantastic.


Crumb is fantastic too.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

White Ant (Hsien-Che Chu, 2017)

Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)

The Marriage-Go-Round (Walter Lang, 1961)
+
With Byrd at the South Pole (No Director Listed, 1930)


Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads an expedition to build Little America, Antarctica’s first city, and then attempts to fly to the South Pole.
Adventure Girl (Herman Raymaker, 1934)

True Story (Rupert Gould, 2015)

Manhunt in the Jungle (Tom McGowan, 1958)

Below the Sahara (Armand Denis, 1953)


Early, colorful doc of animal and tribal human life in the southern half of Africa.
Savage Splendor (No Director Listed, 1949)

Tokyo Project (Richard Shepard, 2017)

Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Jake Szymanski, 2016)


Aubrey Plaza is one of the sex-obsessed dates the “boys” got.
#Lucky Number (Brendan Gabriel Murphy, 2015)

Joe Smith, American (Richard Thorpe, 1942)

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (John Huston, 1972)

Assassin's Creed (Justin Kurzel, 2016)


Convicted killer Michael Fassbinder escapes his death sentence by being used in a time-travel experiment which takes him back to the Spanish Inquisition as something approaching a superhero.
Game Changers (Craig Thompson, 2017)

Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney, 1953)

Long Lost Father (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1934)
+
Ley Lines (Takashi Miike, 1999)


Highly-stylized intro to the final chapter of the Black Society Trilogy detailing Japanese of Chinese ancestry and their problems with the Japanese Mafia.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Willard (Daniel Mann, 1971)

Ben (Phil Karlson, 1972)

In Which We Serve (Noel Coward & David Lean, 1942)

Shot Caller (Ric Roman Waugh, 2017)
-

Businessman Nikolaj Coster-Waldau enters prison as a man committing DUI manslaughter (a friend who was in his car) comes out a hardened gangster and gunrunner.
Love in the City (Seven Directors, 1953)

The Painted Hills (Harold F. Kress, 1951)

Morning Glory (Lowell Sherman, 1933)

Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, 2004)


Boxer Hilary Swank trains with Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, becomes successful and then complications arise.
Origins of the 21st Century (Jean-Luc Godard, 2000)

Absolute Deception (Brian Trenchant-Smith, 2013)
-
Dracula – Prince of Darkness (Terence Fisher, 1966)

The Whip and the Body (Mario Bava [John M. Old], 1963)



A woman (Daliah Lavi) appears to be haunted by the ghost of her sadistic lover (Christopher Lee) after he’s mysteriously murdered.
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (Freddie Francis, 1968)

Cast a Deadly Spell (Martin Canpbell, 1991)
-
Tord and Tord (Niki Lindroth von Bahr, 2011)
-
Daybreak Express (D. A. Pennebaker, 1957)


NYC in the AM set to Duke Ellington.
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (Roy William Neill, 1943)

City of Fear (Irving Lerner, 1959)

Dislocation Blues (Sky Hopinka, 2017)
-
Je vous salue, Sarajevo (Jean-Luc Godard, 1993)


Apparently Godard is at his most eloquent in brevity.



Is that one of your favourite Godard's then Mark?

I watched Dracula: Prince of Darkness last week and gave it a similar
+ Liked it better than the first one, oddly i liked it better before Dracula appeared. I love Christopher Lee but i think the butler was alot better than him personally, enjoyed it more when i was anticipating Dracula's appearance.



A system of cells interlinked
Get Out

(Peele, 2017)





Clever and well-directed. Seems almost universally loved, but I am not sure it is as good as all that. Definitely liked it, though.


The Devil's Candy

Byrne, 2015





Get Out is probably technically the better film, but I gave this the same rating because it has METAL in it. RAHHHHHH!!! It's also an excellent genre blend of supernatural thriller and home invasion.


It Comes at Night

Shults, 2017





Another pretty well done horror flick that focuses mostly on the character interactions when faced with whether or not to trust one another in the face of an unnamed catastrophe. The views only knows as much as the characters; I found this a little frustrating in some ways, but mostly refreshing in an otherwise over-done post-apocalyptic sub-genre.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Je vous salue, Sarajevo (Jean-Luc Godard, 1993)
This short is quite literally the late Godard in 3 minutes. Be it his longest piece Histoire(s) du cinéma, which he finishes with a line taken from Coleridge, or his shortest, this one, he finishes with a line from Aragon, he always seems to take a lot from literature as far as quotes go. He also uses (modern) classical music to a great effect. In this he uses Arvo Pärt's Silouan's Song. He's always on time with the events happening in the world. Sarajevo seems like a really important event to him, because he made a couple of films either briefly mentioning or fully devoted to Bosnian War. Just like the Vietnam War in the 60s. The short belongs to the genre of essay film, a genre he tackled quite a lot in his later career.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Is that one of your favourite Godard's then Mark?
That's what I consider his best of the 40+ I've seen. of course many have equally powerful scenes in them but they also have plenty pf ;longeurs.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)




1. The script is probably the greatest which Hollywood ever concocted and comes closest to the complete, utter wit level which rivals playwrights such as Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw. This, despite the fact that it was constantly being rewritten all the way up to the final day of shooting. Casablanca is a film with dialogue so good that many people still do not comprehend how entertaining it is because the whole thing comes across as effortlessly amusing while feigning seeming seriousness.

2. The technical acumen gathered together for the film is mind-boggling. This includes everything from Don Siegel's montages to the special effects utilizing midgets to convey proper scale, cool matte paintings, the light tower at the airport, the biff, bang, pow of the editing, the super costumes, Max Steiner's musical score, the sets of the various locations and even Sydney Greenstreet's flyswatters and Peter Lorre's haunting eyes. This is certainly the apotheosis of Curtiz's Warner Bros. career.

3. The romance is compelling in far more significant ways than the usual melodrama. The three main characters all are confused about each other's motives and it's unpredictable what will happen right up to the final scene. Yet, everything seems almost inevitable once you watch and rewatch this perfection. Take, for example, the scene where Rick gets Ilsa's letter in the rain as the train prepares to roll out of the station... how could anything ever be topped for emotional power? Look closely at Bogie's face as he tosses the "bleeding, crying" note to the ground.

4. Dooley Wilson's Sam is a hell of a singer and a perfect partner for Bogart's Rick. The scenes where Sam sings "As Time Goes By" are wonderfully nostalgic and even were when the film came out. Add to that the fact that's the one song which stabs Rick in the heart every time he hears it.

5. Speaking of music, the scene where "La Marseillaise" is sung at Rick's always generates lots of emotion and shivers down the backbone. Victor is able to rally the crowd to overcome the Nazis' singing of their patriotic song with an onslaught of honesty and newfound patriotism from the seemingly jaded crowd in the "saloon".

6. The supporting cast is unrivaled in films of the era. Maybe it seems as if there are better casts, but character-for-character, the casting could scarcely be more perfect, and Claude Rains' Louis has to take extra bows for the perfection of his line deliveries, character development and rapport with Bogie's Rick. "I'm shocked... shocked to find gambling going on here!" "Your winnings, sir." "Oh, thank you."

7. Ingrid Bergman is so damn beautiful. She's obviously younger than Bogie, but their relationship seems destined to be and what he gives her in security, she gives him in pure love. They're able to humanize and improve each other in ways far beyond the simple cliche. By the way, did I mention that Bergman is incredibly gorgeous?

8. Bogart is THE MAN in this film. He had played the cynical lead before in the wonderful The Maltese Falcon, but this solidified him as the leading man, the hero, a romantic icon, and the man far more together and capable than even our current role model -- The XX Man.

9. The finale is probably the greatest ever presented in a Hollywood film or anything even resembling a romantic thriller. Rick is able to work everything out to a T and make it all happen, all the while sharing some of the greatest lines in film history. "Round up the usual suspects." "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." If you don't dig the final scene, I don't know what to say...

10. Casablanca is many viewer's gateway into the films of Humphrey Bogart and classic films in general. It may be difficult for some people to realize this, but Bogart was probably in more films which stand the test of time than any other actor of his day and perhaps even ever. Besides that, he was a character actor who was able to straddle the line between cynicism and heroism and create a very-flawed sort of hero which eventually became the Anti-Hero so well popularized by later actors such as Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. The thing about Bogie though was that he was a far-huger romantic leading man than any of them ever proved to be, and that is mind-boggling in and of itself. Movies would not be the same if Bogie and Casablanca did not exist.



The Dead Zone



President Martin Sheen convinces the vice president to nuke china by calling him a wuss.

Steven King points.

Little Evil

Actual movie that you can watch.

Steven King not involved.

Identity



dumb.



Changeling (2008)


Repulsion


Miles Ahead



Cheadle is brilliant.



The Little Mermaid





It



Frantically jumps from one sequence to the next, with no downtime really anywhere. Entertaining and a tiny bit scary sometimes, obviously Steven King was not involved at all.



The Shining



There is a terrifying scene towards the beginning of this movie where text appears reading "Screenplay by Steven King".



Pet Semetary



Steven King is the worst screenwriter to ever work in the movie industry.



Blade Runner 2049



I remember when this was first announced way back in 2012 everyone here was (rightfully) tearing into what a horrible idea a sequel to Blade Runner was, yet somehow this almost lives up to the original.

By far Villeneuve's best flick yet, see it in the theater if you can.

__________________



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
if.... (1968) -




Starts rather usual and then gets more and more deranged with Bunulean drawer scene and crazy massacre at the end. May not be too deep or subtle as a satire, but it's very entertaining and Malcolm McDowell is as great as he is cheeky. The first part of the trilogy.

O Lucky Man! (1973) -




The second part of the trilogy. Way superior to its predecessor. The smile scene at the end (no, not the one on GIF) has one of the best cuts ever, which occurs at just the right moment for it to be very powerful. The film tackles a lot of topics and is very entertaining, too, mainly courtesy of outstanding McDowell. I will watch the third part soon.

எந்திரன் [The Robot] (2010) -






My first Kollywood. My first Masala. Three hours of low humour, crazy action, and cheesy songs. The mosquitos scene is unbelievable. The action sequences perhaps even better than in Fury Road (and even if not, for sure much crazier). Love the bombastic direction of musical moments. Even if the songs are decent at best, I can't get this BOOM BOOM ROBO DA ROBO DA ROBO DA ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM ROBO DA ROBO DA ROBO DA out of my head. I feel like it's a five star masterpiece, but I'm too little a puny human being to understand this. @ashdoc abides!

Hardware (1990) -




Impeccable atmosphere, eye-candy hues. It's a dark, gritty post-apo world condensed to one apartment for most of the film's duration time, but it still works amazingly well. Watched it at night and could not escape its grip.

堕靡泥の星 美少女狩り [Beautiful Girl Hunter] (1979) -




My 100th pinku eiga (actually it's my 101th as I forgot to include one when counting, but it deserves the title of the 100th more than any other film, so let's say it indeed is my 100th). TOP 5, possibly even TOP 3, of the entire genre! Suzuki is a master, because his other pinku, School of the Holy Beast also belongs to the absolute top. Very kinky and f*cked up, in other worlds - very much up my alley! Love this film's degeneracy. But it's not just for the sake of it, just like School it's actually deep (very deep for pinku eiga). A very harsh attack on then contemporary Japan, perhaps even the viewer? And even then such an entertaining piece. Great visuals and HOLY COW A GUY JERKING OFF TO HOLOCAUST PICTURES WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?! Instant classic!!!

Le joli mai [The Lovely Month of May] (1963) -




The political parts were meh, but a look at Paris of the 60's and its citizens is too absorbing to give it any lower rating. I can only wish the film had more Marker trademark narration and more beautiful photos like at the beginning and end, but the way it is, it's pretty damn great anyway!

La belle captive [The Beautiful Prisoner] (1983) -




A beautiful mix of surrealism, mystery and cheesiness. Quite typical Robbe-Grillet and also French pulp art film of the time. Watched at night and enjoyed greatly.

やわらかい肌 [Soft Skin] (1998) -




Late Hisayasu Sato. Harsh satire! The cannibal is one of the guests of the TV show! Probably inspired by Crazy Family and probably similar to Visitor Q (probably, because I've seen neither). Like his other late films it's quite different. Not as many sex scenes and even if there are some they actually serve a purpose (that's new!!!). Loved the idea to force family reunion and every person in the family is f*cked up in his or hers own way, which makes for a wide range of characters. At first I didn't believe this is going to work, but Sato once again proves he is a great director.

GUZOO 神に見捨てられしもの [Life After Death] (1986) -




What can I say? It's very surprising that a Japanese movie has tentacles, but has no rape in it. I thought these two were inseparable. The gore effects, given the low budget, are incredibly well done. Just like other Japanese VHS goodies I saw Biotherapy and Star Virgin, it doesn't overstay its welcome clocking at only 40 minutes. The girls are super cute, but I couldn't find any info about their actual age at the time the film was released, so that may (but doesn't have to) explain no "rape" part. And before you call me a pervert for expecting the rape part, let me just remind you, it's from the director of Guts of the Virgin trilogy.

The Astro-Zombies (1968) -




Can't really find one good thing about it. Tura Satana? The problem with this is that it is tedious. Whereas other "worst movies ever" always keep you entertained, this one keeps you bored. Still a better film than Charlie's Angels. @honeykid's rage in 3... 2... 1...

Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist (2004) -


Worse than Charlie's Angels!!! Hell, it's even worse than Full Throttle!!!!! One of the worst movies ever made! It starts quite nice with some tied babe with a gagging ball, but the camera observes her for too long. Then it observes some three topless harlots laying on bed on their backs with their hands tied beyond their backs. Oh, there is some mediocre black and doom metal music playing NON-STOP during this film. But then what happens is that more or less in the middle of the film there is no more film, as in moving images, but only some bloody photos begin to show - a slide show, damnit! All pics taken from crucifiedgirls.com (SIC!). I like the title and ending credits, because they inform you that the torture of watching this is over. I can't even post a single screen from this film, because there is hardly a second without breasts on the screen (come to think of it, this actually may be a good thing).

Le million (1931) -




Better than Roofs, worse than Freedom, but a great film nonetheless. Such verve! So feel good! Everything a musical should be and then some more.



Welcome to the human race...
Spring (Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, 2014) -


Though I had been led to believe that this qualified as a body horror, the body horror elements of it are downplayed within a narrative that is more of a supernatural romance than anything else as a gormless American backpacker meets a mysterious Italian woman and sparks fly. It's halfway-functional in that regard but I'm not especially taken with it as a romantic drama or (perhaps more importantly) as a body horror. Oh, well.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977 (Maximiliane Mainka and Florian Kopf, 1977) -


Brief behind-the-scenes documentary about Fassbinder. File this under none-too-remarkable curiosity that is making me wonder whether or not I really care that much about Fassbinder to be doing such deep dives into his extended filmography.

Why Does Mr. R. Run Amok? (Michael Fengler and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970) -


My main takeaway from watching this is that I "get" bourgeois ennui enough to find Fassbinder's feature-length take on it to be even more stupefying than he may have intended. Gives me the same vibe as Jeanne Dielman yet it feels twice as long at half the length.

Rio das Mortes (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) -


This one's a bit more engaging as it's at least got some semblance of narrative structure in seeing Fassbinder's countercultural characters plan a quixotic journey to Peru that allows for some mildly interesting thematic digressions that give it an edge over some of the other Fassbinder films I've watched lately.

Fassbinder (Annekatrin Hendel, 2015) -


A fairly standard retrospective documentary about...well, take a guess. Still got to work my way through most of his filmography so at least it serves as a decent appetiser in that regard while also having some fascinating interviews with his erstwhile collaborators.

The Niklashausen Journey (Michael Fengler and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970) -


Fassbinder does an overt engagement with religious themes as he follows a Messianic figure on his journey to change hearts and minds while speaking truth to power. Still as uneven as his other early works, but it's engaging enough where it counts.

The American Soldier (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970) -


Wonder how many of Fassbinder's films can be bluntly summed up as Fassbinder doing x genre or y subject. This one in particular is him doing a hitman movie and it plays about as well as any of his early works can.

Häxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922) -


The fact that this is more of a documentary/docudrama than a straightforward horror does little (if anything) to diminish the horrifying nature of its subject matter - it's more likely to exacerbate it. Considering its age, it's especially remarkable that Häxan offers a relatively progressive approach to the subject of witchcraft by addressing in no uncertain terms how much cruel and unusual persecution was rooted in a multitude of male weaknesses that persisted well into the modern day. A blunt but sadly still necessary message that is suitably amplified by the craftsmanship on display using some refined silent-era effects and techniques to illustrate Satanic scenes and disturbing dramatisations.

Good Time (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie, 2017) -


Kind of a let-down, this one. It's certainly got quite a few of the right elements in place - nervously glitchy Oneohtrix Point Never score, appropriately murky/gaudy urban aesthetics, relentless pacing, Pattinson playing what may well be his best role - but it doesn't quite cohere into something truly resonant. It's certainly good at crafting a distinctive audio-visual experience that never quite lets up until the credits roll, but I'm not sure that it has too much depth beyond that.

Spielberg (Susan Lacy, 2017) -


I'm definitely split down the middle on this one. On the one hand, it's the kind of chilled-out "fun" kind of documentary that makes two-and-a-half hours fly by in covering the life and times of the eponymous master. On the other hand, it barely scratches the surface and covers the man's greatest hits while skimming over some of his lesser but more interesting works he'd done, though there is something to be said for the ways in which he and various other interviewees tie his work and life together.